She is a total parry with ST=11 CN=15 SZ=5 WT=17 WL=17 SP=8 DF=11.
She is right handed, is very intelligent, is slightly uncoordinated, has a good endurance, is
incredibly quick and elusive, has a Master in riposte, has an Expert in attack, has a Master
in parry, has a Master in defense, and has an Expert in decisiveness.

I have tried everything. Slow, medium to fast, and it does horrible in arenas. I dont know what to do to make it pull the trigger when it riposte, mainly just feints attacks, or bats aside opponents weapons and loses initiative before she can do anything. Im thinking its me, but I have heard that there are just warriors that look good that just under perform. Not saying this is a godling or anything, but its almost like it has potential, but it doesnt want to show it. Im frustrated because I really like this warrior, and think it would do really well once it is developed, but Im running out of patience with it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Khorvinus

_________________Show me someone that has never failed, and i'll show you someone who has never attempted to accomplish anything.

One Armed BanditArchMaster Poster

Joined: Apr 15, 2004
Posts: 2611

Posted:
Tue May 21, 2013 11:10 am

How much weight in weapons and armor is the warrior carrying?

Over-encumbering a warrior can lead to poor performance. The most popular formula for determining the max weight they can carry is ST + (lesser of ST or CN) - 6. So in this case, that would be 11 + 11 - 6 or 16 points of weight. I frequently err on the safe side and go one less, so lets say we have 15 points to work with.

Try main-hand SC or LO, no off-hand weapon. SH back-up. That's 5. Then do ASM/S for armor. That gets you right to 15. If you are carrying much more than that, that might well be the problem.

Are you using tactics?

I believe that tactics are a net negative for most basic warriors. The few exceptions are all-out offensives who only care about attacking first, and all-out defensives who only care about maximizing Parry.

One commonly held belief is that tactics improve one skill area and reduce two or more other skills areas. This can be great if you are an ADM AB who only cares about dodging LO crits from the opposing LU. Its not so great if you are a smart TP who wants Parry and Defense to avoid the opponent's attacks, wants Riposte and Init to swing back, and wants Attack to hit your opponent. For that type of TP, a net negative in skills from using tactics is, well, a net negative in performance.

What activity level are you using?

In my experience, if you want a TP to attack, the best thing you can do is run with a 10 AL. When in doubt, use that. Try to find the favorite offensive effort and pair that with the 10 AL. Start with the highest possible (moderate) and work your way down until you see something you like. So start with 6-10, then try 5-10, then try 4-10, etc. While very low OE is not ideal, my TPs that have 2 OE as their favorite seem to attack plenty running that. If those offensive efforts don't work, then I've had some success running 7-10 to 9-10, as well.

If none of this helps, then I can think of only a few other possibilities. One possibility is that your TP needs to learn more Init skills. Another possibility (especially if your TP is in DM-84) is that his opponents are just much better than him. The final possibility is that your warrior is the opposite of knacky: sucky.

Best of luck.

The ConsortiumArchMaster Poster

Joined: Nov 23, 2002
Posts: 8886
Location: on the golf course, in the garden, reading, traveling, and now Consulting

Posted:
Tue May 21, 2013 11:50 am

#1 - perhaps he is a very knacky and SMART "total parry" and just wants to parry. Why should he swing? Realize that some TP's are simply made that way. They are going to parry, steal init, sponge and do not want to do something they are not good at.

#2 - Up his AL and probably his OE. If we really, really want a TP to attack, we may use 10-10-x. Try it one or two times. 10-10-x across and see what he does.

#3 - Unlike OAB, we are FIRM believers in using tactics to CAUSE something you want to happen. We do not nelieve there is a net negative in using tactice. Nope! So use a tactic Bear in mind, if he is a TP like in #1, it will probably do little to help.

#4 Absolutely do not overencumber, and if you want offensive action, then underencumber.

I tend to run my OTPs (Offensive Total Parry) like I would a WS. MO/LO or MO/VL with or without Parry tactic; I lean toward Parry minute 1 and Desp to be safe. Hot minutes may go up to HI/LO but usually MO Effort is enough without hurting any defenses required.

I'll often run armor from ARM/H to ACM/H. I like to give them a light off-hand weapon, rather than a shield. HA up to 8 or 10 and DA heavier. Problem is that HA and DA add to the DF required for a weapon combo. Never was sure if SC/HA or SC/DA needed 12 or 13 DF. I run it unsuited as I don't like the SH against armor over ARM anyways.

You could test the riposte tactic to see if it actually takes the riposte rather than just attempts it, gets it, and stands there staring at a hole in the defense. Strangely enough Responsiveness could also be an answer. It's not a pure defensive tactic in my eyes. It defends, at times, waiting for a quick opening to attack through. Often looks like a riposte tactic, especially if it's the fave; I have 2 or 3 TPs (of about 10 graduated) who have it as a fave tactic!

_________________A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.

Thomas Jefferson

KhorvinusAdvanced Master Poster

Joined: Apr 11, 2011
Posts: 348

Posted:
Wed May 22, 2013 5:58 am

I normally run it 3,5,3 first minute with a parry tactic, and bump it to 5,7,3 with a response tactic in the 2nd, and gradually increase, until desp then I run it 3,3,3 parry. I am guilty on the over encumbering issue, and will try to remedy that. This past turn I ran it hot, 10,10,3 ( I always use the parry KD) across the board, and it lost to a wos in a very popular 4 minute brawl, so Im sure the fight was entertaining, the losing side of entertaining loses its luster quickly.

Khorvinus

_________________Show me someone that has never failed, and i'll show you someone who has never attempted to accomplish anything.

Street_LegalArchMaster Poster

Joined: Jul 29, 2002
Posts: 3433
Location: The Big D (etroit) area

Posted:
Wed May 22, 2013 9:45 am

For what my opinion is worth I tend to look at defensives this way. Riposte, Response, and Dodge are all tending to be higher AL, not always higher than OE though. For the Parry tactic I always run LO or VL Activity Level. Generally higher OE than AL but that doesn't always rule the roost as I have been known to run 1-2-1, 2-3-2, or 3-4-3 Parry tactics. I figure if I want the guy to Parry I don't want him moving around too much. Dodge and Responsiveness I tend to want them moving more and Riposte only tends to be a higher AL than OE because the rules have stated that sometimes a P-Riposte will attack more with a lower OE (tending to look to riposte an attack rather than try and initiate attack; or something to that effect); I extrapolated that statement into a tendency for all my Riposte tactics regardless of style.

Also if you look at the TPs faves on Terrablood the most common listed is VL/LO but activity level breaks down as VL-100; LO-111; MO-61.

I look at it like TPs don't do much Offensively by nature, the more they're moving around the less likely they have any time to look for an attack. Try a 5-3-5 or 5-1-5 Parry tactic; 4-1-x or 4-3-x if the attacks seem too be mostly wild. It seems most effective for a both defense and offense mix with my OTPs and WS.

_________________A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.

Thomas Jefferson

Last edited by Street_Legal on Wed May 22, 2013 9:47 am; edited 1 time in total

Otto_XGrandmaster Poster

Joined: Jan 09, 2003
Posts: 630
Location: Moline, IL

Posted:
Wed May 22, 2013 9:47 am

I'd dump the response tactic. I agree with disencumbering and if possible dropping the tactics.

How about SC, ASM+H, 3-5-3 for min 1-5 and 3-2 6+; parry tactic in desperation.

P.S. I've been told that a good way to lose a lot of fights is to try to force a TP to attack. If they want to attack, they will. Run with no tactics and let them do what they want.

Last edited by Otto_X on Wed May 22, 2013 9:49 am; edited 1 time in total

Street_LegalArchMaster Poster

Joined: Jul 29, 2002
Posts: 3433
Location: The Big D (etroit) area

Posted:
Wed May 22, 2013 9:48 am

Agree with Otto if it's not attacking with Response kick it away except perhaps against styles that use Decisiveness or desperation if it seems to defend well with it!

_________________A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.

Thomas Jefferson

LongshotGrandmaster Poster

Joined: Sep 30, 2012
Posts: 587
Location: Port Moody, BC

Posted:
Wed May 22, 2013 10:39 pm

I agree with Otto as well. Don't force it. I accidentally made an offensive total parry. He was able to take out lungers and strikers in one minute. All I did was let him do his own thing.

_Buri_Grandmaster Poster

Joined: Nov 07, 2010
Posts: 853
Location: Asgard

Posted:
Thu May 23, 2013 3:35 pm

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss responsiveness, I try it at least once to see if it works on all my TPs, in the first minute only though.
My TP Popeye won two TC's running response, Novices he ran 7-7-5-s 1st minute, no strategy changes. I think he only got hit twice the whole tourney. He won the Champions (in the days before the challenger class existed)running 4-7-5-s 1st minute, no strategy changes. The vast majority of his fights were over in the first minute.
I thought for sure he would get response as a favorite tactic, but he did not. He did get low/mod and SC, which I figured out early in his career. This contributed greatly to his success, I'm sure.
Now, I don't know if the responsiveness helped vs the non-striker/bashers, or if he was just THAT good, that he could overcome any penalties that using it incurred. I tend to think the latter, because his parry & defense were always way above the curve for each tourney.